AMD issued three press releases today. The first deals with a new form of stream processing engine that has been enabled by technology acquired through AMD's purchase of ATI. The second deals with a new software API that will give developers a processing ability that's 8-20 times faster than current solutions. And the third signals AMD's desire to help HyperTransport go even further by initiating and funding endeavors toward that end in a university.

The Stream Processor was announced at the Supercomputing 2006 show. The technology leverages massively parallel operations available via a graphics processor design through something AMD is calling a “compute-only” model, meaning it will be used in server racks for high throughput and not general purpose computing as would be seen on a desktop. By slimming down the design aspects of prospective systems and by integrating massively parallel engines used previously for coordinating hundreds of millions of pixels per second onto 3D apps, the compute-only model will allow for significant performance increases in high-end “farmed” workloads that can be processed in parallel.

Next up is a new developer engine called CTS (Close To Metal, as in having your “pedal to the metal”–no, I'm not joking). AMD has leveraged the low-level operations of the massively parallel core of acquired technology from ATI to create the new API. The thin hardware interface will deliver 8x the performance of other 3D solutions, as well as open up a wide array of alternative uses for those algorithms. There are other programming chores that could benefit from highly parallel, extreme throughput potential as well. AMD's CTS solution is being looked at and worked on by over 60 companies. The products expected from this endeavor could change the face of gaming and certain other computing tasks.

And finally we see AMD creating a “Mannheim Center of Excellence” at the University of Mannheim in Germany, the purpose of which will be to further HyperTransport technology. It is the only academic license holder for the HyperTransport Consortium, which consists of over 50 companies, including IBM, Intel, Sun, and others. HyperTransport is a high-speed bus protocol enabling disparate pieces of equipment to communicate with one another at very high speeds.

AMD also announced the creation of OpenFPGA, a steering committee initiative devoted to delivering reusable and reconfigurable high performance computing solutions for enterprise levels.

Post your thoughts below on AMD's continued committment and movement toward bringing the market tools it can actually use to be productive without being proprietary.

I don't think they're concerned with competition, as they are trying to be better than someone else, they are more compelled to spew out products at outrageous speeds… which results in crappy products.

Slower is better. - by randompost

Ahh that is what we are use to with AMD. (3:24pm EST Tue Nov 14 2006)AMD is a place of risk takers who jump the idea envelope getting themselves into the future and bringing it to the now. Granted this stuff is going to take a while to see the light of day but it goes along with AMD and it's way of doing business. This actually makes me feel much better about the current sintuation for them, with Intel back on the throne of home use systems they need to have inovation to compete. This will certainly help them there but more imporatantly in all things business. - by alonadel1

CPU and GPU Integration(4:51pm EST Tue Nov 14 2006)No news on the Fusion Processor? or is this Stream Processor the same as the Fusion Processor (CPU and GPU Integration)?

The Fusion Processor is hard to implement since CPU is general purpose and GPU is esoteric.

The emphasis is on modular design, and it may be be for desktop, too.

- by Lionhearted

Is this Moderator a dude or a…(7:38pm EST Tue Nov 14 2006)

or a geek. This moderator is like that Dell Dude.. a techno retard surf boy like in Fastimes.

Here we have the general release of the 1st Quadcore with the new Core2 architecture and what does this monkey do? Talk about that breakthru, NO sir

Rick is there flogging his beloved little AMD. Pss… do you know that INTEL will probably ship more then 1 Million quadcores before AMD ships its first. They are probably going to ship 50Million or more 65nm before AMd ships its first…

Now that is news.. Not this garbage. Is it no wonder nobody comes here for news but only to laugh at the the late and biased postings.

Its amazing in the age of free information on the internet this idiot can't google and scan news and figure out what is real and important.

Rick look down between your legs that sorry shrivled thing is just like AMD right now. Heard of shrinkage there my boy? - by alan_is_the_man

Stream processing…(7:39pm EST Tue Nov 14 2006)it amazes me noone has done this before. I remember years ago some US university hooked together playstation 2s to create a budget super computer.

Lionheart – I imagine the fusion processor will use the GPU as a souped up FPU for matrix operations.

Alan you're right about Intel – i smiled when i saw their latest advertising logo “the world's best processor”. I, however, opted for AMD in the end and a 4000+ socket 939 at that, in my latest upgrade, not core 2 as previously mentioned. I'm on a budget and realised I could get a better graphics card (7600GT) with the money i'd save from reusing my old PC3200 memory in the system, that and the CPU being half the price of the cheapest Core 2.

Not wanting my PC/CPU for cooking purposes the equivalent priced Pentium 4's didn't even get a look in of course. -) - by davethejackal

Hmmm(8:14pm EST Tue Nov 14 2006)“it amazes me noone has done this before. I remember years ago some US university hooked together playstation 2s to create a budget super computer.”

In essence, is that how the cell works? If not, how?

- by Headley

Dave(8:47pm EST Tue Nov 14 2006)You can get any processor that you want in the world . That does not affect me at all. But this guy insists on having an intel , because I am a gamer for one secondly, Intel just has much better chips this time. It is hard not to be impressed with Intels huge comeback…in such agressive , dramtic fasion . Liek I said you get your AMD, I will stick to Intel for sure. I also still prefer ATI… - by Alan

Headley…(8:52pm EST Tue Nov 14 2006)I don't know much about cell but it's have thought it is more like AMDs CPU/GPU than this stream thing. - by davethejackal

Intel's “Quad Core”(2:57am EST Wed Nov 15 2006)Intel's quad core is not true quad core. It's simply having 2 dual core processors on the same package. True quad core is having 4 cores on the same die. This is just like the hackjob Intel did with the first generation Pentium D's. AMD could release hack job products like these if they have money to burn on, but unfortunately they do not. I like to see companies innovate to improve performance rather than waste money on temporary products they will be replacing in less than a year. - by futureCE

Clueless(4:24am EST Wed Nov 15 2006)“But, will it run Doom 3?”-the best of wannabe geek quotes - by knowsnothing

Wandering somewhat off topic …(5:00pm EST Wed Nov 15 2006)Alan,

Yeah I prefer ATI too – my original system spec had a ATI X1950pro, E6300, 2Gb DDR2 800 etc but in the end I could afford a weekend away in a major european city for the money I'd save by doing it cheaply (including the fact I could reuse my old RAM rather than buying DDR2).

Sure the Core 2/ATI based system would have been better but the only thing I'd need the extra speed for is games … plus with DirectX 10 around the corner is it worth spending £135 on a graphics card + £25 extra on a PSU when I can get away with £85 as a stop gap? I almost went for the X1650pro at the same price but the performance difference between that and the 7600GT was too much to ignore… even if it does lack a few features. “Yah pays yer money ya takes yer choice” as they say.

This little bundle will probably see me through to AMD's inevitable superiour response to Core 2, until then I'm prepared to slum it. -) - by davethejackal

And if you are serious, then you have no idea what humor is, or even history.

- by Headley

“AMD's inevitable superiour response to Core 2″(4:53am EST Thu Nov 16 2006)… ya put little gems in like that for the Intel fanboys and 12 hrs later still not a single bite. No appreciation some people. - by davethejackal

Time Will Tell(10:32am EST Thu Nov 16 2006)I am not sure how anyone could say a product will be superior when that procduct is not even out yet, comparing it to a product that is already out. Intel beat them to the punch to quad, that counts for something. Not tomention how dominant Intel is right now….They really really turned the tables over here. I hope AMD does respond as equally well, because that is competition but I would not go as far as to say AMD will be better. If the tables were reversed here and it was Intel who had to respond, I would say the same thing. I will beleive when I see it. Otherwise, it is pure speculation . - by Alan

These stream processors…(6:35pm EST Thu Nov 16 2006)… I was looking on nvidia's site and it seems like they have the same idea, using GPUs for computational tasks: